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Giving Thanks

I am sitting here this morning after a long and exhausting two weeks. Classes started at UTA a little over two weeks ago and along with the classes came the return of all of the students. Thousands upon thousands of college students, many of whom were walking into campus for the first time. And because of you our student leaders were there. Our student leaders were there to meet these new students, welcome them onto campus, help them move into their dorms, connect them to friends, invite them to fun events, share jesus with them and invite them into Christ centered communities. All of this is evidence of God’s spirit at work here on the UT Arlington campus. So I’m thanking God this morning. Im thanking God for a hard working student leader team that is as dedicated as I am when it comes to reaching out to their peers with the good news of Jesus. I’m thanking God for his divine appointments. I can’t tell you how many students we met this week who shared how lonely they were feeling, or how they had just prayed to God for new friends 5 minutes before one of our student leaders walked up to meet them. I’m also thanking God for your help and for your support and for your prayers in all of this. If I haven’t made it clear before in the past, I believe that God has a deep deep love for college students and that he wants to change the world through this young generation. I’m so thankful that you allow me to be here and to share in this work.
Hayli and I at a recent outreach event on campus
In order to meet these students, our leader team went to every event that UT Arlington and even hosted a few of our own. From dance parties, to free food, to candy poker, our students were at all of these events with a mission. Meet someone and share with them the same kind of love that God shares with us. Make genuine friends, and invite them into christian community. I have talked to several of our student leaders who said that over the last two weeks they got the phone numbers of over 80 students. And with a leader team size of 27, even if each of them only met 50 students, that’s 1,350 students who were met and befriended by someone who loves Jesus wholeheartedly.
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All of this culminated to our event last Thursday night called Thursday Night Fellowship. We have a time of praise and worship, we shared a sermon on our values and what we believe God wants for the lives of these college students, and we all shared in community afterwards by going to whataburger and playing board games together. This was a time where students could connect with God and make Christian friends for probably the first time in college. We probably had around 140 students there, we had to get extra chairs. Ministry is not about numbers, but every single one of those students will be shown individual attention from our team of staff and student leaders, and on top of this each one of those students will be invited into smaller groups called cores where they can ask questions about faith, learn about the word, and make deeper friendships with brothers or sisters who will truly care for them. And lastly every single one of those students will be given the opportunity to study scripture one on one with one of our student leaders.. Friendship in college ministry is great, but our mission that drives everything we do is to make and mature disciples of Jesus for the glory of God. So be praying for our student leaders as they invite their peers to read God’s word with them, in hopes that not only will grow in their understanding of what it means to live your life for jesus, but also that they might become more and more like Christ in their daily interactions with others as a new generation of radical Jesus people come to maturity. As always I want to say thank you again for your role in this. And don't forget to check out this months student testimony from UTA's very own Ulises Solis. A guy I'll have the pleasure of mentoring over this next year.


Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 4, 2018 at 8:52 AM

    Great to read how you month went Austin! I'll be praying for y'all!

    ReplyDelete

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